There are a number of home automation systems and approaches that seek to permit automated control of electrical devices in a house. The popularity of home automation has been increasing due to the greater availability of smartphones and tablets. As noted in “The Problem With Home Automation's Internet Of Things (IoT)”, an article appearing in Forbes dated Sep. 26, 2013, home automation was typically for wealthy consumers with an expensive system to control lights, home theater, security, air conditioning, and home audio. This market has expanded with many do it yourself (DIY) products now available, and, although the products are useful, they may be difficult to aggregate. In other words, as explained in the article, difficulties could arise if a consumer bought a Nest thermostat, Kwikset door lock, Phillips Hue lighting device, Lutron light switch, Sonos audio system, and Belkin wireless plugs. The consumer would need to have multiple applications each requiring time to setup, learn, and use. Additionally, the article states that there is no easy way to make devices work together, such as if the consumer wanted to trigger one event using one device based on another event from another device.
Multiple communication protocols may also be problematic. In particular, different devices may operate using different communication protocols, for example, Wifi, Zigbee, Zwave, Insteon, Itron, RadioRA2, and others. This may create additional difficulties for home automation.
One approach to address these shortcomings is for the consumer, which may include a user and/or enterprise, to use a service and device aggregator that provides one application and a consolidated wireless adapter unit. The user would contract with such a provider for multiple years. Unfortunately, as noted in the article, the consumer may not benefit from the most advanced hardware and software.
Another approach, as noted in the Forbes article, is to provide a single application that attempts to consolidate disparate applications and consolidate wireless adaptors, for example, using each of the different communications protocols. However, such aggregation or single application approaches may present increased difficulty in usability. For example, if a given user cannot readily operate the one application or if the application is not readily accessible for any given user, operational difficulties may still exist. Moreover, as home automation systems become more ubiquitous, for example, as a result of the number of operable devices increases and the integration of the these devices becomes more seamless, operational conflicts may occur. For example, multiple users may attempt to control a single device with conflicting instructions. Accordingly, further improvements to the operation of home automation devices may be desirable.